CROSSING WIRES
He was looking for her. He was looking because he'd spotted those kids from Norway - right now, they were over by the window with Mas y Menos - and he wanted her to introduce him.
It couldn't really be called a 'party', whatever was happening in their tower. None of it had been planned. After the battle, Main Ops had become Celebration H.Q.
The first port of call had been mountainous pizza orders, all of which arrived quicker than expected.
Cyborg blasted his best playlist from ceiling-high speakers. Pantha used what they had in the fridge to whip up a virgin fruit punch, garnished with thick chunks of pineapple. The 'birthday cupboard' was raided, with streamers and confetti being pulled from its shelves. Melvin asked Bobby to help inflate some balloons, and a lot of people gawked, lost as to how they were inflating themselves.
It was a cacophony of triumph. A surging, swinging mass of colour and cheer.
Beast Boy's chest glowed. He'd just led their team to victory, and if there was ever a time to drive home that he wasn't the goofy little kid they used to know anymore, now was it.
He weaved in and out of the throng with a red cup in hand, past the raised platform and around the sofa's edge. He was just starting to think she'd withdrawn to her room. None of them would be surprised.
Then he saw her. She was faced away from him in a corner of the kitchen, engulfed in conversation with an honorary member. He could spot just a patch of her profile; dark brows dipped to grant this stranger her attention, cherub nose inhaling a tendril of steam from the mug she held in both hands. The gentle slope of her jaw was mostly hidden by a curtain of hair, and if she turned even a bit, he'd lose sight of her eyes.
She looked so good, coming out of her shell like this. A tender smile settled over his lips.
Despite the distance, they'd talked a lot over the whirlwind that was Operation: B.R.A.I.N. He recalled debriefings that turned into mutual complaining that turned into weak, lazy murmurs through communicator mics. Those memories swirled like spectres in his head.
Even before this mission, he'd known. Garfield had known for a while about that thing he'd so staunchly tried to shove down and ignore. If the end of the world was a coffin, then this distance had been the last nail through its wood.
He was smitten with her. He'd accepted that. He was just trying to process what exactly he should do with it.
"Beast Boy!"
Above the crowd, there was a familiar voice behind him. Gar turned to see his sister approaching, face lit up with a jubilant smile.
"I wish to offer the congratulations for your leadership," Starfire beamed, reaching his side. She was the biggest sweetheart, to seek him out like this - to give credit where it was due amidst all the chaos.
He sent a toothy grin back, placing his hands on his hips. For the sake of a few minutes, Raven could wait.
"Yeah. I was pretty cool, huh?"
His phoney sass sparked a giggle. "Indeed! I did not realise you had such krawhta'k in you!"
He didn't have to know what it meant to get the message. "Aw, shucks, Star. You're gonna make my head blow up," he told her. Her smile dropped.
"... I am?"
His did too. "No, not—" A sudden, artless laugh. "I just mean, thanks."
She recovered quickly. "Oh, you are most welcome!" Starfire stole a look around the heaving room. "I trust you are enjoying the festivities?"
"Duh!" Gar soaked it in too. "It's so sweet having actual people 'round here."
"Agreed. We have gained so many allies! I have yet to meet them all."
"Me either." A rogue finger tapped against his red cup. "So, who do you know?"
"Well..." She bent down and placed a hand on his shoulder to guide his stance. "Do you see that girl in the dress, by the stairs?" Beast Boy nodded. "That is Argent." Star shifted her friend a little to the left. "And over there is Kilowatt."
Two full brows rose. "Cool name."
"I thought the same!" she smiled. "And... hm, I am not sure who is speaking with Robin. But—"
"Yo!" Another familiar voice emerged, like a bell above the sea of noise. Cyborg ran over to his friends, looking to be on the brink of giggles. Gar could only assume he was still buzzing from the fight. "You guys seen Raven?"
"Actually, I have not," Starfire voiced. Cyborg redirected their attention to the kitchen, and the pair's eyes broke from him to follow.
Nothing seemed any different from before.
"She's totally hitting it off with Hot Spot!" the robot cheeped, and that giddy, hushed announcement near deafened his best friend.
"What?" Beast Boy heard his voice leave him in a cold drop of fear. He watched the same scene play out again, but now, what was a friendly conversation, Raven 'coming out of her shell', looked a lot like something else.
"They been flirtin' for ages."
His chest stuttered horribly.
Flirting?
Surely they weren't. Cyborg was overexcited. They were just talking.
"You didn't hear it from me," he finished through a whisper before scampering off to share the same news with Robin.
For a beat, there was only quiet between the two heroes.
"That is... rare," Starfire said.
"I know," Gar agreed, still looking.
"It is good, though. Yes?"
He detected her gaze shift from the kitchen back to him, what might've been a smile appearing in the corner of his eye.
"Yeah." He was still looking. Why hadn't he stopped looking? "Yeah, totally..."
He took a sip from his cup.
What about him? What about calls via communicator at ridiculous hours, when all she had was the sunset and all he had was that same sun rising?
Beast Boy had a horrendous relationship with insecurity. It was always just so much easier to feign the confidence till it came. He didn't enjoy being this way, but he was. And in a flicker of breath, he'd painted in all of 'Hot Spot's' blank spaces - made him into this fearless and intelligent gentleman, who was alluring and daring and not insecure.
He watched the man smile, like he'd just said something terribly witty, and an appropriately green monster curled low in his belly.
Beast Boy took another sip.
This was his home. She was his teammate. Yet this guy was leaning onto that counter like he owned the place, and conversing with her so casually, like just anyone in the world got to do such things.
Starfire fiddled with a strand of her hair, and Beast Boy tried to listen. His ears ticked forward, but without shifting, it was simply too loud and he was simply too far.
He took another sip.
"... You seem to be fond of the—"
"Do you think they're flirting?" He was finally able to tear his sights away so he could gauge Starfire instead. His sister looked down at that expression, which was arranging itself in such a way that his concern might pass for curiosity.
She blinked once, then drew her head back up to eye the exchange again. He wasn't far behind her.
"Well, it is difficult to tell from here," she acknowledged, keeping her tone neutral. Raven was almost wholly turned away from them. The only face really in view was Hot Spot's.
That face, which was quite a nice face, had become so much more punchable in the last forty seconds...
Starfire hadn't intended to drag any of this out. But it seemed Garfield wanted to.
She'd had her suspicions. X'Hal knew she'd had them. She could test them. She could indulge him, and just maybe, he might indulge her too.
"But... he is looking up and down."
Beast Boy snapped back to her. "So?" he threw out with more edge than intended.
"I... merely believe that can signify attraction," the alien offered, surprised. "But perhaps I am—"
"Who is that guy anyway?"
Gar could tell you who he wasn't. He wasn't the guy who had led them all to victory. He wasn't the guy who'd seen their mission through from start to end.
"He was ambushed with Robin by Madame Rouge."
"And what's his powers? Human Wi-Fi router?"
He was sinking pretty low now, likening abilities to measuring dicks.
"He is a pyrokinetic whose form can generate lethal measures of heat and conjure large bursts of flame from his hands."
Dammit. That sounds cool.
Beast Boy took another sip, and wished the punch lived up to its name. When Hot Spot made a gesture then moved forward a little to trace Raven's brooch, he swallowed everything on his tongue thickly down.
They couldn't see her face, so he told himself she wasn't smiling at that. She wasn't scowling either, because that amount of emotion was reserved just for him. Right now, Raven was giving Hot Spot precisely nothing. A vacuous stare.
That's what Beast Boy told himself.
Those nimble fingers fell away from her cloak, and Raven's arm rose to tuck some hair behind her ear.
What the hell did that mean?
"Know what?" he piped up, hoping the anxiety wasn't as heavy in his mouth as it felt in his heart. "This is really good. Gonna top up."
With a cheeky shake of his cup, Gar left Starfire to fade into the tide. Stiff boots carried him on, churning this feeling with every loaded step.
It was a grisly thing, jealousy. An ugly beast in itself. It made the greatest men petty. It made Beast Boy petty.
That's what you are. He tempered his jaw. You're literally pathetic. No wonder she doesn't—
.
"Hey. It's Wonder Girl, right?"
Beast Boy appeared in her line of sight out of nowhere. He'd just swept into the kitchen to stand by the punch bowl, where an attractive brunette in a red suit had been mid-gulp after refilling her drink. She hurriedly swallowed it down.
"Yeah!" She smiled, holding out her free hand. "Hi, I'm new."
"I'm Beast Boy," he returned, taking the offered hand before refilling his own cup. "Sooo, how's it feel being an official Titan?" Garfield was grinning now, leaning back against the countertop to sidle up beside this girl.
Donna laughed with that same benevolence. "Intimidating, I guess? There's a lot to live up to."
"Hey, don't sweat it. I saw you out there. You killed it."
She beamed. "You think?!"
Typical Beast Boy. All over the first pretty face he could find. Making full use of his win while the attention was still there.
Poor Donna seemed so sweet, she wouldn't know a guy being friendly from a guy coming onto her if her life depended on it.
"You okay?"
Hot Spot, with his back to the punch bowl, noted the distance in Raven's eyes around half a minute into speaking.
"Yeah," the sibyl said, focusing again on his face, where she found amusement had been dashed with a trace of concern.
"Spaced out on me there."
"Sorry."
He chuckled. "It's cool. It's overwhelming, right? All these people swarming your house."
Her eyes lowered to her mug. "It's... not what we're used to."
"Yeah. We supers tend to keep a lonely streak." Hot Spot looked around. "This is good, though. Sticking together."
"Mhm."
Just past a black-clad shoulder, Beast Boy was tilting his head and nudging Donna with his elbow as he summoned a joke. Raven's lips pressed together.
As it turned out, Cyborg had been a little overzealous. Raven's knee-jerk reaction to being lured into conversation had been to try and get out of it. That didn't come quite as easily as she'd hoped - at least, not without coming across as very rude. She imagined Robin would have her head for not at least making the effort.
The Titans were expanding, and this was unavoidable. It had happened when Titans East formed, and was happening again now, tenfold. But this stranger... He wasn't so bad.
Raven wasn't an idiot. She knew instantly that he was trying to hit on her. He had an air of forced poise and eyes that searched for rejection in and out of looking 'sexy' and 'suave'. She wouldn't call what she'd been doing 'flirting back', so much as humouring his endeavours.
She was flattered. She was flattered for the attention. And maybe she'd wanted to see how far she could push, if she could push at all. Maybe she was trying this 'Normal' thing out for size. This 'Not Going to End the World' thing, which still felt so much like an ill-fitted suit.
It wasn't like other people had made an attempt to approach her. Other people were basking in the glory - which was fine, because she didn't care what other people did, even if she hadn't truly caught up with them since this whole thing began.
She cared about being present for the man in front of her, who was now smiling. A soft, supple thing, drawing the edge of his lips up his cheek.
"Guess that means I'll be seeing more of you?" he said. Raven blinked slowly a couple of times, then inhaled even slower.
"Maybe," she said back.
It had less conviction than she'd wanted.
.
He'd heard. He'd heard, and for a second, he'd looked legitimately crushed.
"Hey."
Donna's vibrant eyes yanked his own back to the fore.
"What?" Garfield started. She stifled a bubbly laugh.
"I said you're funny," the girl repeated, louder now.
"Oh."
He didn't care. Why didn't he care?
"Heh. I try."
Beast Boy's smile shifted down.
He looked into his cup, then he took another sip.
Midnight approached, and the room was now sparse, the last of their guests sifting out through the door.
"Nice meeting you!" Donna had called when she'd went to leave, only friendliness steeping her tone. That was ten minutes ago.
"Yeah! See ya'," Beast Boy had mustered, sending her a weak wave back.
At present, Hot Spot took out his communicator at the bottom of the steps.
"Gonna assume you have one of these too?" he smirked, and Raven merely took the cue to glance down at the belt hidden beneath her cloak. An identical device was latched on at the chain.
His smirk deepened. "Good to know," was the last thing she got, then he too was retreating coolly to the exit.
... Was that an 'I'll call you'?
Azar, what was she doing? This wasn't her. She was so out of her depth that it hurt.
As she watched him leave, something sickly lay down in her stomach, and she turned from the door, just staring down at the carpet for a while. When her head rose, she saw the remains of the 'party' scattered out across Ops.
Jericho was teaching sign language to Kole, the two of them off in their own little world. Cyborg was passed out on the sofa, like in all the excitement he'd just run out of juice. Bushido was at the sink, using those massive arms to help clean dishes, and Kid Flash was skidding in a blur to different corners of the room. Raven thought, in a split-second, that she caught sight of a brush and pan in his hands.
A sigh left her. God, this was exhausting.
Just when she went to swivel to the stairs, another presence stopped her. He was on the upper level, his back pressed to the window and his head dropped to study something in his hands.
She felt her feet move on their own.
Beast Boy toyed with the plastic party horn, a bunch of which had been discovered then dug out at some point in the evening. His foot tapped a few times against the rug.
"Enjoy your victory party?"
There was a shadow over him, and when he glanced up, there was Raven. He tried on a smile for her. It didn't feel right, but it still appeared.
"Our victory party," Gar corrected as she went to sit beside him. "We all did this."
Funny, how he always bigged himself up except for when he deserved it.
"Because of you," Raven said. She'd seated herself over a foot away, and still she was too close.
Please don't say things like that, his mind implored. Be distant. Be mean. Make this easier for me.
His eyes wandered again to the floor, and he told himself he was being cool, knowing full well he was just cowardly. A little shrug nudged his shoulder up.
"It was okay."
His sparkle seemed smaller.
He must've been tired, she thought. She was tired.
Some silence followed after that, with Raven peering back out to the room. She'd already approached him. She couldn't be expected to lead conversation too.
He didn't let her down.
"Where's everyone staying?"
She tried to remember what their leader had said before leaving.
"We've got some in the guest rooms," she began. "Robin and Starfire are getting sleeping bags. Some had ships and went home. Some checked into a hotel in town."
He nodded and brushed his thumb over the mouthpiece of the party horn. His tongue felt antsy. It twisted itself around in his mouth.
"What about Hot Spot?"
Raven regarded him with a raised brow. "Who?"
He almost blanked. "Uh. The guy you spent the whole night talking to?" he pressed.
"Oh." Raven leaned back. "Aiden."
Beast Boy didn't mean for his face to sour so much.
"Aiden?"
His teammate flushed slightly. She couldn't help that that's how he'd introduced himself. Her head turned to the side.
"It wasn't the whole night," she mumbled, a smidge embarrassed now she'd decoded his words.
"Long enough."
Raven detected a change in his tone that sent a ripple across her skin. Violets landed on him, but he was still surveying the view before them.
"I saw those Norway kids were here and wanted you to introduce me. I guess you were busy." It wasn't necessarily accusing, but there were tiny thorns in his words that you had to look closely to see.
"... I didn't—"
"I mean" - his hand lifted, but he still stared out - "I just figured after a month apart we could, y'know, catch up tonight."
Raven frowned, guilt kicking her.
He should've left it there. If he'd known what would follow, he would've left it there. But he was bitter, and he didn't.
"Like your friends might come first or something."
Something grave stung the air.
"... What?"
Small hands coiled into her knees. That something grave now punctured her voice. And instead of seeing it for what it was, a lonesome ache, Raven projected her own insecurity. The idea that she couldn't do things like that, because of who she was.
The way the next sounds left her, icy and hurt, was somehow worse than any eruption.
"You're the one always telling me to socialise."
His ears flexed down. His soul turned to lead.
He said nothing, perhaps out of shame, or fear of spouting more brainless affronts.
"And you seemed pretty busy yourself."
At last he braved her stare, but it was with urgency and dread.
"That wasn't—"
"So what? You're allowed to do that but I can't?"
Beast Boy jostled to his knees, hands sent out to plead his case. "But– that didn't mean anything!"
"Neither did this!"
The air surrounding that narrow space cracked. Even as the rest of the room went on - as Cyborg snored and Wally zoomed and Bushido made space for more dishes in the sink. Their private pocket of Ops stood still.
The two heroes realised at about the same time that they'd gotten quite off the topic of 'neglecting your friends'.
Raven refused to brace the friction any more.
"... Great catch up," she said, standing firmly. "I'm going to bed."
"Wait!" He couldn't believe it when she actually listened. "I'm sorry. I dunno why I'm being a jerk."
Yes you do.
Raven sent him a look over her shoulder. "The glory got to your massive head?" Though she wore that face of stone, he sensed the tremor of satisfaction; a hairline thread she was tossing him as redemption.
"Yeah," he agreed without an ounce of objection. "That's it." Once more, he tried a smile for her, though it was sheepish this time. He garnered it might've been enough when she rolled her eyes, then returned reluctantly to his side.
The hood of her cloak collected at the glass. He bent his legs, rested his arms on them and spoke candidly.
"I think it's been... too much. All of this," Gar confessed. "It felt like it took a year and a second at once. And now there's all these new people, which is great, but... different." His head bowed. "And I'm tired. I'm so tired, Rae. It got to me out there. There were times where I really thought the guys... where I really thought you might be..."
Raven's features softened. She read him, all his small tells, and felt her brows turn up.
"I missed you." He was looking at her again. "That's all."
"Beast Boy..."
"A lot."
At least he could say he'd confessed to one thing tonight.
Raven stared on, remembering that same look through a fuzzy screen, when he was somewhere in Belgium and just wanting to rest.
Her eyes moved across him, up and down.
"I guess I missed you too."
His ears flinched. "You did?"
She nodded. His canine appeared from the makings of a smile.
"A lot?" he asked, spirited.
"Stop looking so happy."
"You missed my jokes."
"No."
"And my charm."
"Way off."
"You can admit it. No one's around."
A groan. "I take it back. I didn't miss you."
Then came the laugh. The charmed, boyish trickle, like a chime in the wind. Raven's cheeks felt a little warmer.
"Yeah. We both know that's a lie."
He perched his chin on his knees, and some peace crawled into the distance between them.
"... He seems nice."
Raven eyed the shifter, one brow raised a bit.
"Aiden," he said, just as any 'dream boat's' name should be said.
She did well not to scoff. Her arms folded over her chest.
"He's a little serious."
Gar hesitated before slowly sitting up. "I thought you liked serious?"
Raven blinked. "So did I."
Quiet again. Cyborg snoring again. Plates clinking again.
Beast Boy wished he knew what was said in all that time; what had been the thing to put her off.
The girl beside him shuffled a little. Tucked some hair behind her ear.
"... It's late." She finally moved to stand.
"You turning in?" he asked, following her lead.
"Yeah. You?"
He shrugged, looking over to the kitchen. "I'm gonna finish up here."
Raven's weight tilted to one hip. "Haven't you worked hard enough?"
"Evil works harder."
"Evil, as in... dishes."
"Yeeup." He sent out a wink.
She shook her head and, for the last time that evening, rolled her eyes.
"Your choice," the sibyl told him, making her way to the stairs. Before she left, two amethysts peered over her shoulder as before. "See you tomorrow."
Had she meant for it to come out as softly as that?
"Yeah. Night..." Beast Boy murmured back. He stayed in that spot until she left, and only released all of his breath when the double doors closed behind her.
A scratch just below his ear, and his attention pitched to the side, where this very dedicated member was still working away through the last pile of dishes. He paced over to him.
"Hey dude," Gar smiled. "Need a hand?"
Bushido lowered a glass into the suds. "Hey, you're the guy who made the brain freeze joke."
The changeling went pale. Had he not endured enough torment tonight?
"That was funny."
Two jades grew wide. His mouth hung loose for a second, before righting itself back into its grin.
"I'm Beast Boy," he said, stepping up to the sink and grabbing a sponge. His chest had that rosy glow in it again.
Aiden was serious, and he was funny.
Maybe he could add another win to the day.
Author's Note:
felt this was too long to go in my 'drabble' series (i'm trying to keep them under 2k).
hit a bit of writer's block with VT so got this idea (which had been sitting in my drafts for a while) off my chest to help me out. yet another missing scene to go towards my 'two sides of the same coin' universe and help flesh out the build-up to these two's relationship.
i always feel so sorry for beast boy when i write these sorta things. he's so in touch with his feelings and fully aware of them, yet raven's just a little behind in that department. good thing he's patient with her emotional stunting. good thing she's patient with his unintentional outbursts.
they'll get there.